


Mint Flavored Bigotry

by furnishedtower



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: POC Hermione Granger, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 20:18:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4493310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/furnishedtower/pseuds/furnishedtower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermione Granger gets a haircut suggestion from a piece of chewing gum.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mint Flavored Bigotry

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted on tumblr at http://furnishedtower.tumblr.com/post/125784243526

It wasn’t until her last class of the day that she noticed something was off, something was wrong. She caught a quick glimpse of it in the reflection of the cabinet window pressed up against the hallway’s lofty wall. Slowly she turned her head around to again look at the back of the long, black locks of hair within the reflection. That’s when she saw what it was. There, almost in the center, eight centimeters from the bottom, was a huge knot in her untamed curls. On most occasions, this was not enough to cause a rise in Hermione — seeing how her hair had the frequent tendency to gather a great many knots and tangles — but unfortunately this was not one of those occasions. She could make out a robin’s egg blue piece of chewing gum within the massive knot, slightly off-center. Several strands of the surrounding bushy hair had attached itself to the gum, that she was now aware smelled faintly of mint, creating a look that quite resembled a bird’s nest.

With a quick downturn of her lips and an angry furrow between the brows, Hermione carefully tried to remove the now frizzy hair from the prejudiced invasion. While doing so, she wondered exactly how long it had been there and exactly how she had let it go so long undiscovered. And not only that, but how not a single person had informed her of this malicious offense. Perhaps it had only just happened not too long ago. Or perhaps people were too embarrassed, or worse, too amused, to say anything. Whatever the case, the gum was not coming free from the hair, and all her vain attempts had only spread the gum, making the matter worse. Hermione didn’t know of any magical ways to remove the mess without damaging her hair. And pulling the gum out did not seem to be the answer. This left the only other option: to cut off all of the hair above the bird’s nest like knot. With that in mind, she tried one last time to remove her beloved, wild and bushy curls from the gum. She tugged much harder this time. Hard enough to bring water to her eyes, and almost hard enough to have pull the hair out from the roots if she continued. However, Hermione came to the pained conclusion that so much of her hair would have to be cut off.

She was beyond upset. The previously watery eyes turned into hot angry tears. The messy curls of black locks that she could barely keep under control, that her mother and father had always styled and played with while she grew up, and that she had come to love and embrace as a part of herself was ruined. Long months of growing it out were thrown out the window. It was obvious why someone had placed the chewing gum in her hair. A slew of slurs came to mind. ‘Golliwog’ and ‘mudblood’ being two of the many that where just on the tip of her tongue. Hermione had gotten past the point of worrying about how other people saw her, different and abnormal. Now she was simply angry. Furious even. Furious that someone had found a way to stain the wall of confidence that she had slowly built up.

Hermione threw back her hair, turned hurriedly away from cabinet, and stormed down the hallway in pursuit of the Gryffindor Tower. No way was she going to let someone get the best of her after she finally felt proud of more than her smarts. The smarts she had at first used to prove her worth. Hermione wiped away the tear streaks from her face with the end of her jumper sleeve and defiantly raised her chin. Her eyes were fiery coals and the fists at her side iron hammers by the time she had climbed the several flights of stairs towards the Gryffindor Common Room entrance. The Fat Lady gave Hermione a concerned look as she neared her portrait, still yards away at the bottom of the last flight of stairs. “Something the matter, dear,” she bellowed at the gaining Hermione. The Fat Lady’s lips parted and the frown deepened as her eyes widened into an exaggerated look of realization. “Those two aren’t –,” was all she got to say before Hermione cut her off with a poorly presented ‘flibbertigibbet’ password. “Flimmeragiget,” Hermione hurriedly butchered over the top of the Fat Lady’s taken aback, “Oh.” Upon hearing the garbled noise she and the Fat Lady had created together, she felt quite silly of herself. Hermione abruptly stopped at the threshold of the now thrown open portrait entrance and gave the Fat Lady a half smile. “Sorry. And no, Ron and Harry aren’t giving me any trouble. That is, this time.” She had already started up the last few steps into the common room when the Fat Lady sweetly replied, “Well, I hope you feel better, dear.”

Although in lighter spirits after her encounter with the Fat Lady, she was still unfazed from the mission at hand. Both Ron and Harry, who were seated in the chairs by the fireplace playing a game of wizard’s chess, looked up as Hermione entered the room. Their looks of excitement quickly changed to looks of bafflement as Hermione practically flew through the half empty common room and up the stairs into the girl’s dorms. She hadn’t stopped to talk to any of her friends, who like Ron and Harry, had paused what they were doing and watched her lively display. Too confused to ask, everyone silently exchanged weird looks and shoulder shrugs before they returned to their activities.

Up the stairs, Hermione knelt in front of the chest at the foot of her bed, looking through the organized stacks within. She pulled out a box full of quill repair supplies, and from it the pair of long scissors. With scissors in hand, she then pushed herself up off the floor and smartly moved to stand in front of the looking glass on wall, opposite of the bed. Hermione took a final look at her long, black curls before cutting off the hair at the shoulders, a couple of centimeters above the offensive mint flavored piece of bigotry. Tears again rolled down her face as she continued to cut of the remaining hair. By the time the last few strand of hair hit the floor, all of her tears had dried up and the only evidence of the incident were her pinkish eyes and the the wet spots on her robe. Hermione rubbed her face with the four fingers of her free hand for good measure before looking at herself again in the looking glass. After a few seconds she let out a slow sigh. She touched her much shorter hair and then nodded a single reassuring nod to the reflection. She thought, “I’ll be okay with this.” And with the strongest voice she could muster, Hermione confidently told herself aloud, “It is going to take more than chewing gum to break Hermione Jean Granger.” With a cleaning charm, Hermione cleaned up all of the hair off the floor at the foot of the looking glass and disposed of it in a near by rubbish bin. She then went on to put the scissors back within the chest. She gave the room a quick look around and looked at herself one last time before feeling satisfied that everything was in its place. Everything was as it should be. Hermione swaggered across room and down the stairs, ready to face the world and ready to show off the new look she had gained all thanks to the eagerly placed suggestion.


End file.
